The Illegal Marijuana Growers Are Reluctant to Join The Legal Industry

While California marijuana growers are plentiful, there are not enough licensed growers to meet the demand the legal industry will have. A California growers license has been challenging to find for many reasons, including costs and a slow California Growers Association.

Many of the growers in California come from an illegal background and they are being rather slow about coming out of the shadows. They also have concerns about the costs associated with getting a California growers license.

Many of the retailers already had permits to operate at the local level, which made getting a state license quicker. Growers however, have operated off the radar until now. So the paperwork to get them regulated is taking longer. Currently, there are not enough growers and distributors licensed to provide product. High demand, low supply.
Many of the established retailers anticipated this shortage so a lot of the stock that you see in store was purchased in advance of the 2018 law explained Ian Jones the buyer for Medithrive in San Francisco.

“We’re good. We’re projected to be fully stocked until March,” said Jones.

Not all retailers planned ahead like Medithrive.

“The people who didn’t are scrambling now,” said Jones.

Flynn the San Francisco Chair of the California Growers Association, he says members are reporting a two to three week backlog for licenses.

There were crazy wildfires last year that impacted the marijuana crops significantly by either burning them down or smoking the sensitive crops. However, California produces enough marijuana that if the illegal market was allowed to supply the state’s marijuana demand, then there would likely be little problem with supplying the industry.

Other states have also faced some supply issues which resulted in consumers only having a limited amount of strain choices or the various forms of cannabis a consumer can purchase such as concentrates. Do you think that California will figure out it supply shortage issue in time before it becomes a real problem?